The worst part about the rest of the trip to Kollavik was the company. The bodyguards were alright guys with the exception of one stinky, hairy, bear-looking man who thought he was God’s gift to women. He wouldn’t stop hitting on Aleyda even after she made it clear to him that she was taken and had no interest in him. For some reason, her answer just did not compute with him. His stalkerish tendencies must have served him well in the past because he was nothing if not persistent. Finally, about the third day out, I wandered over to Fekhlachev and let him know that if the behavior continued he would likely be down one man. I could see Aleyda getting more and more infuriated and I didn’t think things were going to end well. After I talked to Fekhlachev, the idiot, whose name was Octavian, turned his attention to Helvia instead. Now, that was funny to watch. She was so much more quick witted and experienced than Octavian was and before long she had him wrapped around her little finger. I think he would have carried her all the way to Kollavik if she had asked. Almost everyone else could see what was going on and we all found it amusing.
No, the really irritating members of the company were the clients the bodyguards were supposed to be guarding. None of them had bothered to bring travel clothes with them so they were hiking through the wilderness in casual dress clothing. Their shoes really weren’t up to the task and a day didn’t pass when one or more of them slipped and fell. Soon, their clothing which they obviously wore as a symbol of wealth, was universally muddy, grass stained, and dirty. Then, they didn’t look wealthy. Instead, they looked like a bunch of peasants who had fled the farm after finding some old clothing in a trunk somewhere. A bigger bunch of complainers I have never met. That seemed to be their primary way to pass the time. One of them demanded that I give him my boots since we were of similar size. I declined. He went off on a diatribe about his family’s power and how he would crush me when we made it to Kollavik. I casually mentioned that we were headed there to go to work for Captain Barinov and he shut right the fuck up.
They even had the temerity to complain about Kadar, saying that he was stinky and he barked too much. One of them ordered his bodyguard to silence the dog. The bodyguard took a couple of steps towards Kadar to comply with the demand. I glanced over and noticed that Mero was almost in tears clearly having overheard the threat. That enraged me. I walked over to the bodyguard before he could get very far and let him know that what he was planning to do was a very bad idea. As a matter of fact, I let him know that if he took one step further it would be the last idea he ever entertained. Fekhlachev, noting the confrontation, wandered over.
“What’s the problem?” he asked.
“This man is headed over to hurt or kill our dog because his employer demanded it,” I said.
“You can always get another dog,” Fekhlachev said.
“Another dog wouldn’t be this dog,” I replied. “We like this dog. Why should we have to get another one because someone’s an idiot?”
“And you are willing to fight over this?” he asked.
“We are ready to kill over this,” I responded. “If you don’t want our company any longer, just let me know. We will all leave, the dog included, and you can make your own way to Kollavik.”
“We have you outnumbered,” he replied.
“Good for you. Let’s say we fight and you win. It should be an awful lot of fun for the two or three survivors to cater to the remaining clients’ whims. On the other hand, let’s pretend we get lucky and kill the rest of you. Then, your clients never make it to Kollavik at all and your remaining business interests take a hit. Nobody is going to want to hire bodyguards from a company that can’t protect their clients. That wouldn’t be leaving much of a legacy for your loved ones, now, would it?”
“You have a point,” he said. “I don’t think we would lose, though.”
“People never think they are going to lose until they do,” I said. “By then, it’s too late. Plus, we are arguing about one person’s sensitivity to the sounds a dog naturally makes. Is that worth fighting and dying for?”
“Now that you put it that way, not really,” he answered. “And I really don’t know how we would be feeding everyone without the game your man brings in. I think our client will just have to deal with the noise.”
Anxo didn’t have any more ready made arrows with him but he had the parts, shafts, arrowheads, glue and fletchings to make more. That’s what he did when we stopped to rest for the night. His hands automatically performed the process that he must have done thousands of times. Then, by day he ranged far away from the party hunting to keep us fed. He took Xeng with him to carry what he killed and it wasn’t unusual for Xeng to come back toting the corpse of a deer or a boar, or numerous rabbits. Although we carried some food in our packs it wasn’t enough to feed this many people. It would likely have been enough if it were just us but it wasn’t just us and I didn’t have it in me to let the others starve.
I watched Fekhlachev wander over to the client. I may have sidled a little closer to overhear the conversation.
“Do you want quiet or do you want to eat?” Fekhlachev asked the man.
“Why does it have to be one or another?” the client responded.
“Because if we go after that dog then there will be a fight. You may not have noticed but their hunter is keeping all of us supplied with food. If we fight and win, then there is no more hunter so no more food. If we fight and lose then there is nobody to protect you from the dangers of the wild. You lot wouldn’t last two days.”
“Surely, they don’t mean to fight over that dog,” the client spat out angrily.
“They most certainly do,” Fekhlachev responded. “The last option is that we split from their group. You no longer will have to deal with the dog but you also won’t be in a position to complain a whole lot when we don’t get much to eat.”
“Surely you know how to hunt,” the client said.
“I do, but do you see me carrying a bow? Their man is obviously a professional. I am a rank amateur.”
“After considering it, I have decided that I choose to eat,” the client said.
“Good choice.”
And that was the last complaining we heard about Kadar.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Because we weren’t moving very fast with all the dead weight among us, it took us a day and a half to reach the road. During our trip through the forest, we were all alert for pursuit from the pirates but they never turned up. Perhaps they didn’t feel very comfortable in the woods or perhaps they had prevailed and were looting the carcass of a once fine and proud riverboat. We didn’t see any monstrous wildlife. The animals that we did see were of the more normal variety. Anxo did say that he saw evidence that there were bears in the area but the bears were clearly wise enough not to tangle with a group of a couple dozen people. Unlike the wildlife on the island, animals here had enough contact with humans that they understood the threat that they posed.
Once we reached the road, travel got smoother. The road itself was more logging trail than an actual roadway. Most of it was nothing more than two large ruts where wheeled vehicles had trundled back and forth enough to dig into the ground. It was on a higher area and far off in the distance we could see a faint hint of the river that we had traveled on. At least with the river in sight we knew we were headed in the right direction.
As the days passed, the road drew closer and closer to the river. Before long, we could see its winding path clearly. Finally, on the fourth or fifth day, I lost count, it curved down towards the banks of the river and I could see a small village of some sort nestled on its banks. That put some pep back into our steps. Within the hour, we were striding through the village. The village itself wasn’t much to speak of. It obviously flooded often here because most of the buildings were raised above the ground on stilts and almost every dwelling had a boat of some kind near it.
“Civilization at last!” I heard one of the clients exclaim. I don’t know what he was looking at, but it obviously wasn’t the same thing that I was seeing. This place looked like a rough and seedy river town and I had no desire to spend the night here.
Fekhlachev walked over to me. “The clients have been talking,’ he said. “They have decided they will wait here until the next riverboat passes and attempt to secure passage. They are tired of walking.”
“Do you know how much further it is to Kollavik on the road?” I asked him.
“Less than a week, I think,” he said.
“I think this is where we take our leave, then,” I said. “I have had enough of the river and I think we will make the rest of the trip on foot. Before we go, though, I need to ask you a question. The river pirates had to come from somewhere, right? How do you know they didn’t come from here?”
He looked stricken for a moment. “That’s a good question,” he said. “I don’t, but riverboats stop here quite often for trade so I imagine that the village itself is safe enough.”
“I hope you’re right,” I replied. “I have respect for you and most of your men and I wouldn’t want to see anything bad happen to any of you. Take care of yourself.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I doubt we would have made it here without you and your people. When we get to Kollavik I will come find you and we can go out drinking or something.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said.
We couldn’t leave immediately. First, we had to endure tearful proclamations of eternal love from Helvia’s pet mercenary. He promised that he would find her again. I thought the odds of that happening were exactly zero. Within the hour he would have forgotten all about her and started stalking some tavern wench or shopkeeper’s daughter in the village. That was fine by me and Helvia didn’t exactly look too broken up over things either. “What a disgusting man,” she said as we exited the village.
Then, it was back on the roadway which quickly ascended back to higher ground. The next two days of travel were peaceful. Anxo only had to hunt once every other day or so to keep us well fed. Sathebeena started singing dwarven work songs as we made our way down the roadway and I was surprised at how well her alto voice held to the tunes. I guess we all have unexpected depths. After we had heard each song a couple of times, other tried to join in. I am not certain they all pronounced the words right but it made the time pass faster.
This stretch of road was obviously more frequently navigated than the path on the other side of the village. We even started encountering other people from outlying farms and ranches. Everyone was friendly enough and I found out from them that Kollavik was only about three more days of travel away at the pace we were setting. Soon, we started passing through more villages, sometimes two or more a day. These places were clearly dedicated to agrarian pursuits and raw resource harvesting. After considering our treatment on our trip from Westfield, we didn’t stop in any of them. I thought we would likely be greeted more cordially here, but one can never be too careful. Although Davit and Keti had been providing some language training at night, there were still too many cultural norms that we were unfamiliar with and we couldn’t really risk being delayed by an inevitable faux pas.
Things were too settled here and there really wasn’t enough to hunt, so we did trade for a little food at the outlying farms we passed. We were enamored with eating and they liked the color of our gold, so we didn’t have any real problem getting a chicken or three here, a basket of fresh produce there. We weren’t as well fed as we were back in the forest but I promised everyone that we would make up for it when we reached Kollavik.
Finally, in the middle of the afternoon one day, we noticed that the roadway was turning back towards the river. Down below us, still quite a distance away, I spied a large and sprawling city. We were in sight of our destination but I didn’t think we could make it there before dark. Instead, I called for an early camp and we relaxed, knowing that the next few days were going to be very busy.
The next morning, we got up bright and early and after passing through a couple of more villages we reached the outskirts of the city. The city itself seemed to be ringed by slums although off in the distance we could see the walls of the city proper. We walked in a tight group through the decrepit neighborhoods, and although we were accosted a couple of times by people wanting to guide us or sell us something, or touts trying to draw customers to their employers’ businesses, we never had to resort to violence. Frankly, after all the time we had spent on the road, we probably looked like we would fit right in with the rest of the people living in the slums.
Finally, we reached the gates of the city. There were guards at the gates and they seemed like they turned away more people than they let enter. Finally, when it was our turn to enter, one of the guards approached.
“We don’t need your kind in Kollavik,” he announced presumptuously.
“We were on a riverboat that was attacked by pirates and had to make the last portion of our journey on foot,” I said. “Captain Barinov is expecting us.”
He opened his mouth to turn us away and then what I said to him finally sunk in. His jaw closed with a clack. “What’s your name?” he asked. “You better not be lying.”
“My name is James Smith,” I replied. “And no, I am not lying. It would be suicide to lie about something like that.”
“That it would,” he replied with a little laugh. He led us over to a shaded area next to the wall. “Wait here and I will send word,” he said.
He talked to one of the other guardsmen and that man went scurrying off. We sat there for a long time, watching people pass in and out of the gate. A couple of hours passed and we started snacking on some of our leftover provisions. Being the magnanimous man that I am, I offered some to the guards but none of them accepted.
I was bored but there was nothing to be done about it. After much time had passed, the guard returned with a man in a fancy military uniform in tow. He walked over to us.
“You are James Smith?” the man asked.
“I am,” I replied.
“We expected you to arrive by riverboat,” he said.
“So did we, but some river pirates had some other ideas,” I replied. “And we never even got a refund for the cost of our passage.”
He laughed a little bit. “Captain Barinov did mention that you had a certain irreverence about you. Follow me.”
We all got to our feet and started walking behind him as he led us through Kollavik, our new home.